Archive for July 11, 2018

No. The declaration of war comes when the “Palestinians” murder Israeli civilians who are peacefully gathering for Shabbat dinner. The declaration of war comes when “Palestinians” pass out candy on the street to celebrate the brutal murders of Israeli civilians. The declaration of war comes from “Palestinians” paint swastikas on kites and place molotov cocktails on them, and send them over the Israeli border. The declaration of war comes when “Palestinian” TV routinely carries incitement to hatred and genocide of the Jews. Neither the Australians nor anyone else should be funding any of this.

“Palestinians: Australian Decision to Withhold Funds ‘Declaration of War,’” by Chris Mitchell, CBN, July 6, 2018:

JERUSALEM, Israel – The Palestinian Authority accused Australia of making a declaration of war following its decision to withhold financial aid to the PA if it continues to reward terrorists and their families. It’s one more nation pressuring the PA to stop a policy many call “pay to slay.”

The controversial policy provides money to convicted Palestinian terrorists and their families for attacks on Israelis. The payments coming from this fund add up to more than $330 million each year.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop objected to the policy saying, “I am concerned that in providing funds for this aspect of the PA’s operation, there is an opportunity for it to use its own budget to [fund] activities that Australia would never support.”

“Australia now is just doing the bidding of the US unfortunately and Julie Bishop’s statement is extremely insulting and it shows the utmost ignorance of the realities of Palestinians living under a cruel and brutal and illegal Israeli occupation,” she said.

Australia’s decision follows America’s lead in passing the Taylor Force Act that also withholds aid until the PA ends the terror payments. Congress named the law after Taylor Force, an American citizen killed in a 2016 terror attack in Israel….

Rep. DeSantis: ‘The Muslim Brotherhood is a malevolent force, and American policy needs to reflect this truth’

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are renewing a years-long push to designate the international Muslim Brotherhood organization as a terrorist organization due to its support for terror organizations that threaten U.S. security interests across the globe, according to conversations with U.S. officials spearheading the effort.

The congressional effort to target the Muslim Brotherhood will kick off early Wednesday, when lawmakers on the House’s Subcommittee on National Security gather for a hearing to “examine the threat that the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates pose to the United States and its interests and how to most effectively counter it, including potential next steps for U.S. policy,” according to the committee.

The hearing is expected to set the stage for Congress to follow through on efforts that begun in 2015 to convince the Obama administration to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terror group following its violent, and eventually failed, takeover in Egypt.

The State Department has opposed formal designation of the Brotherhood for some time due to efforts by the Obama administration to make diplomatic overtures to the group, particularly during its coup in Egypt. Although the Trump administration has designated various offshoots of the Brotherhood as global terror groups, the organization as a whole has escaped U.S. scrutiny.

Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), the National Security Subcommittee’s chair, told the Washington Free Beacon that U.S. policy has failed to address the Brotherhood’s radical behavior and support for terror groups. Multiple countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, have already designated the Brotherhood as a terror group.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a malevolent force, and American policy needs to reflect this truth,” DeSantis told the Free Beacon. “Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization is overdue.”

Key U.S. allies such as Turkey and Qatar continue to work alongside the Muslim Brotherhood, sparking concern among lawmakers such as DeSantis who view these countries as working at a crossroads with the Trump administration as it works to eradicate radical forces in the Middle East.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is a radical Islamist organization that has generated a network of affiliates in over 70 countries,” the House committee notes on its website promoting the upcoming hearing.

In addition to hearing from Muslim Brotherhood experts on the group’s ongoing support for radical terror groups, lawmakers participating in the hearing will keep a close eye on exposing the roles that both Qatar and Turkey play in bolstering the group’s radical ideology, according to those briefed on the hearing.

While the Trump administration, as early as January 2017, indicated that it was considering a terror designation for the entire Muslim Brotherhood, little action has been taken, motivating Congress to lead the charge.

Past efforts to designate the Muslim Brotherhood failed to gain traction during the Obama administration due to its explicit policy of working with the group in Egypt, a policy that was met with much protest in the region.

U.S. Muslim advocacy organizations such as the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, have galvanized their supporters to oppose a Muslim Brotherhood designation.

In early 2017, groups affiliated with CAIR and its supporters launched a series of attacks on Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), who, at the time, was pushing his own effort to formally designate the Brotherhood as a terror entity.

The Muslim religious leader of Jerusalem has issued a decree banning the sale of property to Jews, or “enemies,” as he referred to them.

The Palestinian mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, on Tuesday issued a fatwa, an Islamic religious decree, banning Muslims from “facilitating the transfer of ownership of any part of Jerusalem or the land of Palestine to the enemies,” TheJerusalem Post reported.

The fatwa, according to Palestinian sources quoted in the report, came in response to a proposed Israeli bill that eases the purchase of land by Jews in Area C of Judea and Samaria, which is under full Israeli sovereignty, as stipulated by the Oslo Accords.

The fatwa decreed that the “land of Palestine” was Waqf, an absolute religious endowment in Islamic law, and therefore cannot be sold in any way to non-Muslims.

“Anyone who sells his land to the enemies or accepts compensation for it will commit a sin,” said Hussein in his fatwa.

He also warned that anyone who violates the fatwa will be considered an infidel, an apostate and a traitor to God, Islam and his homeland, the report said.

The fatwa additionally demands that Muslims boycott anyone who violates the ruling and should therefore refuse to do business with the transgressors, marry them, attend their funerals or bury them in Muslim cemeteries.

Palestinian law also prohibits Palestinians from selling land to “any man or judicial body corporation of Israeli citizenship, living in Israel or acting on its behalf.”

Land sales to Israelis are considered treason by the Palestinians because they supposedly threaten the founding of a future state.

U.S. Secretary of State ratchets up rhetoric against Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, says administration seeks to”raise the cost” for Iran’s rogue behavior in region • Pompeo accuses Iran of using embassies for terror plots in Europe.

Associated Press, Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo

|Photo: AFP

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday said Iran will pay a price for destabilizing the region, warning it will face increased pressure if it does not become “a more normal country.”

In an interview with the United Arab Emirates’ paper The National, Pompeo was asked what kind of steps the U.S. would take to pressure Iran. “The tools we’ll use will be varied. They’ll often be diplomatic. You see the U.S.-led efforts on sanctions, so economic tools.”

“We are prepared to defend the region militarily,” Pompeo continued.

Amid Iranian threats to block the main shipping artery in the Strait of Hormuz, Pompeo said: “We’re going to make sure that the sea lanes remain open. It’s been a long-standing U.S. policy and we’re prepared to make sure that that happens.”

He further warned that Iran will be punished for its meddling in the Syrian civil war and in other conflicts in the region. He specifically took aim at the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, saying he was “causing trouble throughout Iraq and Syria, and we need to raise the cost for him, for his organization and for him personally.”

Pompeo’s comments came during a short trip to the United Arab Emirates, a staunch U.S. ally, and as senior U.S. officials were wrapping up three days of talks in neighboring Saudi Arabia on countering threats from Iran and starving it of oil revenue.

In another interview, with Sky News Arabia, Pompeo accused Iran of using its embassies to plot terrorist attacks in Europe and warned Tehran that its actions have “a real high cost” after it threatened to disrupt Mideast oil supplies.

Pompeo stressed the desire of America and its Gulf Arab allies to turn the economic screws on Iran after Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear accord that had restricted Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Pompeo said the U.S. seeks to “deny Iran the financial capacity to continue this bad behavior” using a broad range of sanctions.

He said the sanctions were not aimed at the Iranian people, but at “convincing the Iranian regime that its malign behavior is unacceptable and has a real high cost for them.”

He said the U.S. will consider requests from some countries to be exempted from sanctions it plans to impose in November to prevent Iran from exporting oil.

“There will be a handful of countries that come to the United States and ask for relief from that. We’ll consider it,” Pompeo said.

Iranian vice president Eshaq Jahangiri acknowledged on Tuesday that U.S. sanctions would hurt the economy, but promised to “sell as much oil as we can” and protect Iran’s banking system.

Jahangiri said Washington was trying to stop Iran’s petrochemical, steel and copper exports, and to disrupt its ports and shipping services.

Jahangiri said it would be a mistake to think the U.S. “economic war” against Iran will have no impact, but added: “We will make Americans understand this year that they cannot stop Iranian oil sales.”

Up until Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s talks with President Vladimir Putin Moscow on Wednesday Nov. 11, Israel made clear in every way possible – diplomatic and military – its resolve to prevent Iran and its proxies from establishing a presence in Syria.

The resolve to remove Iran, Hizballah and the other Shiite militias under Revolutionary Guards command was emphasized for the umpteenth time on Tuesday, before Putin’s special emissaries. His special envoy Alexander Lavrentiev and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin arrived in Jerusalem for another try to shift Netanyahu from his all-or-nothing stance on Iran. With them was a large Russian delegation of security and military officials from the Operations Division of the Russian General Staff and intelligence units specializing in Syrian affairs.

The prime minister complained about lack of trust after Putin’s repeated violations of his promises to Israel regarding Syria. But the biggest problem still be confronted is Iran’s intransigent determination to stay in Syria which is equal to Israel’s determination to drive this arch enemy off its Syrian doorstep.

This impasse was amply illustrated on Sunday. Israel insisted on keeping up its military attacks on Iranian command posts and depots filled with new weapons constantly flown in to Syria, while deterred Hizballah and Iraqi, Afghan and Shiite militias were undeterred from advancing on Israel’s borders, even in Syrian army uniforms. This week they are shortening the distance to their goal day by day.
Putin can’t, or won’t, push the Iranians out of Syria to meet Netanyahu’s demand. Without the Iranian militias, the crumbling Syrian army is no shape for conducting substantial ground operations to recover all the areas still in rebel hands. The Iranian proxy input was pivotal in the battles two months ago around Damascus and now, too, in the ongoing Syrian offensives in the southwest.

And so, while Putin gave US President Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister solemn promises to keep pro-Iranian forces out of the operations going forward in the south, at the same time, he deployed the Russian air force in their support for bombing rebel positions.

Netanyahu is meeting Putin Wednesday for the third time in six months. At each meeting, he was forced back into concessions to pay for Russia turning a blind eye to Israeli air strikes against Iranian targets in Syria. The prime minister first agreed to Iran and its proxies holding back in positions that were 80km from Israel’s border; he then agreed to 40km and now Israel is clinging to the 1974 Separation of Forces accord signed with Syria at the end of the Yom Kippur War. This is tantamount to permission for the Syrian army and its (Iranian) allies to move up to 10km from the border and in some places only a few dozen meters from the Israeli Golan and Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) basin.

But even that Israeli concession is being whittled down. Tuesday night, the Russian UN mission led an Iranian and Syrian bid to curtail the authority of UNDOF, the international force monitoring the demilitarized zone marked out in the 1974 treaty. Once again, the Russians are two-timing Israel to protect Iran’s presence in Syria.
Until now, the IDF did not step in to arrest the serious slide in Israel’s strategic position vis a vis Iran’s menacing proximity to its northern border. It also silenced operations in the run-up to the prime minister’s meeting with Putin.

But the price for Russia’s blind eye to Israel air strikes against Iranian targets has become excessive. Time has run out for deliberating whether this price was worthwhile or an inquiry into the failure of Israel’s often lethal air operations to break Iran’s resolve. Hizballah and other Iranian cohorts are too close for Israel to indulge in soul-searching. Netanyahu’s critical conversation with Putin on Wednesday is the last one before Jerusalem decides whether to go to war in Syria against Iran, Hizballah and the militias.

Putin is not keen on another war front developing in Syria, but neither is he willing to throw the Iranians out. President Trump too is deeply reluctant to engage in any further military combat in Syria. So it is now up to Israel alone to make and carry through this fateful decision.

The leader of a Pakistani Islamist group vowed to ‘wipe Holland off the face of the earth’ with a nuclear attack in response to a Prophet Muhammad cartoon competition being held in the country.

Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the leader of Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), issued the warning at an event organised by the Karachi Press Club last week.

‘If they give me the atom bomb, I would remove Holland from the face of the earth before they can hold a competition of caricatures,’ he said, according to the Times of India.

‘I will wipe them off the face of this earth.’

Khadim Hussain Rizvi, the leader of the Tehreek Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), vowed to ‘wipe Holland off the face of the earth’ with a nuclear attack

He was referencing a competition of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad announced by The Freedom Party of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders last month.

The party said the plan to hold the competition in the party’s secure offices in Dutch Parliament had been approved by the Dutch Counter-terrorism Agency NCTV.

Wilders’ Freedom Party is the leading opposition party in parliament after coming in second place in elections last March

He has called for the Koran to be banned, and says Islam is a totalitarian faith.

‘Freedom of speech is threatened, especially for Islam critics,’ Wilders said in a statement.

‘We should never accept that. Freedom of speech is our most important freedom.’
The Freedom Party of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders (pictured) announced the competition of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in June
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The Freedom Party of Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders (pictured) announced the competition of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in June

American cartoonist Bosch Fawstin, winner of a similar contest in Garland, Texas, in May 2015, has been asked to judge the Dutch contest, which will be held later this year.

Earlier in 2015, Islamist gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris offices of the French secularist satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had printed cartoons of the Prophet.

In 2005, the publication in a Danish newspaper of a dozen cartoons depicting the Prophet led to violent protests across the Muslim world.

Meanwhile, the TLP is a political party known for its vehement opposition to changes in Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

Last November, more than 2,000 TLP members staged a three-week long sit in at Faizabad – the intersection of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi – protesting a small change to the oath taken by parliamentary candidates.

It would have seen them say ‘I believe’ instead of ‘I solemnly swear’ that Prophet Muhammad is the final prophet.

The government ultimately rolled back the change in the Election Act, claiming it had been a clerical error.

Israeli billionaire and investor Morris Kahn (L) speaks to journalists in front of a Israeli Aerospace Industries spacecraft during a press conference to announce its launch to the moon, in Yehud, near Tel Aviv, on July 10, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / THOMAS COEX)

Save the date. On February 13, 2019, an Israeli-built unmanned spacecraft is expected to land on the moon, having blasted off from Earth two months earlier, project managers said at a news conference Tuesday.

If all goes well, the SpaceIL spider-like craft will give Israel entry into the exclusive club of just three nations that have so far achieved a controlled landing on the moon’s surface.

The probe will be launched sometime in December from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, officials said during the media event, held at an Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) space technology site in Yehud. It is scheduled to land on February 13, 2019.

The spacecraft will carry out a Weizmann Institute of Science experiment to measure the moon’s magnetic field, finishing its mission within two days.

SpaceIL’s vehicle is just two meters in diameter and 1.5 meters tall standing on its four legs. It weighs 600 kilograms, making it the smallest craft to touchdown on the moon.

Journalists prepare to attend a press conference by Israeli Aerospace Industries’ space division to announce the launch of a spacecraft to the moon, July 10, 2019 (AFP PHOTO / THOMAS COEX)

Israeli billionaire philanthropist and SpaceIL President Morris Kahn, who donated some $27 million to the project, told a gathering of journalists: “We are making history.”

The idea, he said, is to inspire youth in Israel to take up science studies and to have the impact the Apollo lunar mission had in 1969, when astronauts landed on the moon, with people remembering forever where they were on that day.

“This is a tremendous project,” Khan said. “When the rocket is launched into space, we will all remember where we were when Israel landed on the moon.”

SpaceIL’s President Morris Kahn donated some $27 million to a project that aims to put Israel’s first spacecraft onto the moon; July 10, 2018 (Shoshanna Solomon/Times of Israel)

The Israeli government has promised to fund 10% of the project, he said, but the money still has to come. “The government should recognize that space is very important for the future,” he said.

“This is national history,” said IAI director Yossi Weiss. “The path to the moon is not easy. It is a very complicated route.”

“The cooperation between SpaceIL and IAI is an example of the amazing abilities that can be reached in civil space activities — activities that combine education, technology, industry, knowledge and a lot of initiative.”

The SpaceIL moon landing craft. (SpaceIL)

Whereas other previous moonshot spacecraft have taken just days to reach their target, SpaceIL will be fired into an elliptical orbit to gradually bring it closer to the moon, a journey that will take two months but will save on carrying the fuel needed for a quicker passage.

Even so, the craft will travel at a speed that is 13 times faster than the maximal speed of an F-15 fighter jet, steering itself to the moon, which is some 384,000 kilometers (239,000 miles) from Earth, about 10 times the distance between Earth and communication satellites orbiting it. Through its elliptical journey, the Israeli spacecraft will cover some 9 million kilometers, the project managers said.

The Falcon 9 launch rocket’s primary load will be a much a larger communications satellite.

The craft itself — the very same one that will land on the moon — was displayed in a so-called “clean room” on site. Journalists and visitors had to don white robes and hats and cover their shoes before accessing the space. Shiny gold insulating paper covered its spiderlike legs. The gold paper will cover the whole of the craft once it is finally ready, the creators said.

The Israeli spacecraft that is scheduled to land on the Moon in Feb. 2019, was displayed at (IAI)’s MBT Space facility in Yehud. The craft was developed in Israel and is a joint project with SpaceIL (Shoshanna Solomon/Times of Israel)

The spacecraft’s design and development is all Israeli, the organizers explained.

The fuel is contained in balloon-like devices within the lightweight metal frame of the craft, with one engine at its center, and smaller engines on the side. The craft is equipped with solar panels, avionics, electronics and a control system – all of which were developed in Israel. It is also equipped with cameras and communication equipment so it can continuously be in touch with its operators on Earth.

The project is making “the moon reachable, which it never was before,” said IAI’s Weiss at the event. “Going to the moon was a hugely expensive government-run mission. And this is going to be the first privately run mission to the moon.”

This is the first time an enterprise, not a country, has gone to the moon at a reasonable cost, and it is “going to show the way for the rest of the world on how space is much more than just satellites.”

Humanity is looking for ways to make it easier to get to the moon and other planets, he said, and this mission paves the way for that.

In the coming months the spacecraft will undergo a series of intensive checks and tests at IAI, including with the use of simulators, to prove that it will withstand the launch, flight and landing conditions, said SpaceIL’s Anteby at the event. In November the spacecraft will be sent to Cape Canaveral to ready it for the launch in December.

SpaceIL began in 2011 when engineers Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari and Yonatan Winetraub decided to compete in the Google Lunar XPRIZE, an international contest with a $20 million prize for the first privately funded team that puts a small, mobile craft on the moon.

The Israeli spacecraft that is scheduled to land on the Moon in Feb. 2019, was displayed at (IAI)’s MBT Space facility in Yehud. The craft was developed in Israel and is a joint project with SpaceIL (Shoshanna Solomon/Times of Israel)

Although the Google contest was eventually scrapped in March 2018 after none of the teams managed to launch their probes before the deadline, the SpaceIL group kept going with its project, gaining funding from various donors including Kahn and the Adelson family.

In total the project has cost some $95 million.

Only three countries have made soft landings of craft on the moon — Russia, the US, and China. The Russians were first in February 1966 with their Luna 9 probe followed by the US in June the same year with Surveyor 1, and then the Chinese with the Chang’e 3 craft in 2013. Other countries have succeeded in crashing scientific probes into the surface.

Only the US has landed people on the moon, with the first human steps on the surface taken by Neil Armstrong on July 21, 1969, when he famously declared, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”